Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) sleuths from Madurai inspected the trinitrotoluene (TNT) slabs and several thousand rounds of ammunition for different types of guns recovered from the backyard of a house at Anthoniyarpuram near Thangachimadam on Monday night and found them all foreign made.
The sleuths, who examined the explosives kept at the site on Tuesday, said the TNT slabs were high power explosives and suggested that the explosives would be destroyed within a couple of days. The TNT slabs were manufactured during 1970-72 and they had come across such explosives for the first time, they said.
The explosives remained ‘passive’ for more than two decades as they were buried in a wet condition, the six-member squad, led by Inspector Gunasekaran, said.
As the TNT slabs would explode when exposed to heat, the police left them at the site itself and removed the ammunition to the AR police godown. Police guards had been posted at the site.
Q Branch police sources said at least three Sri Lankan Tamil militant organisations – Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS) and Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) had their base at Anthoniyarpuram in the 1980s and they could have buried the explosives and ammunition, before leaving India. These organisations had their camps near the seashore to smuggle arms and ammunition while fighting against the Sri Lankan forces.
The police said the ammunition included 400 rounds for high machine guns, 5,500 rounds for medium machine guns and 4,928 rounds for self-loading rifles. Details of the types of ammunition and year of manufacturing would be sent to the Central Ordnance Depot (COD), Madhya Pradesh, for further analysis, Superintendent of Police Omprakash Meena said.
Meanwhile, the district police have moved the magistrate court seeking permission to destroy the explosives and ammunition, he said. Thiruvadanai Judicial Magistrate, who was in-charge of the Rameswaram court, would inspect them at the site, he said.
The police have also recovered four rolls of fuse wire, two landmines, 20 M5 302 grenades, 11 pockets of gunpowder and 87 signal rounds during the nearly five-hour-long operation on Monday night.
Thankachimadam police have registered a case under Sections 4 and 5 of the Explosives Substance Act, 1908, and Sections 25 (1B) (a) and 3 of the Arms Act, 1959.